1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an attachment for wheeled land vehicles and more particularly, to a velocipede type wheel scraper and cleaner for use with bicycles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A cycling enthusiast, especially a competitor in a cycling event, such as a racing event, is primarily interested in areas of performance such as control, speed, and agility. Safety is a another factor of importance in competitive cycling. In road and criterium racing, the cyclists spend an overwhelming amount of time in large or small groups, often shoulder to shoulder and wheel to wheel. Periodically the cyclist may be so inclined as to scrape debris from his or her tire. This is most frequently accomplished through the cyclist displacing himself or herself to the side of the bicycle so as to access the tire and manually clean the same. This activity may disrupt the cyclists balance causing the cyclist to swerve and strike another cyclist or expose his or her body parts to moving parts, jeopardizing the safety of himself or herself as well as neighboring cyclists.
A fixedly attached brush assembly which facilitates in the removal from the tire road debris could reduce the risk of a hazardous situation occurring. Brush assemblies or components intended for this purpose have long been devised. One such assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 477,504, issued Jun. 21, 1892 to William I. Bunker, which describes a wheel-guard having a structure which is purposed to be rigidly attached to the frame of a bicycle and which supports a brush for cleaning the periphery of the tire and a guard for arresting upwardly projecting particles. This wheel-guard is large and cumbersome and thereby heavy and highly conducive to producing drag. Furthermore, the wheel guard makes substantially continuous contact with the periphery of the tire and thereby, offers greater resistance to the movement of the tire as well as an increased wear of the same.
Similar to the aforementioned wheel-guard described by Bunker, a bicycle attachment for scraping tires is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 597,527, issued Jan. 18, 1898 to Alfred M. Peate et al., describing a frame for carrying a scraper. The frame is connectable to the front and/or rear forks of a bicycle. In addition to the disadvantages in the above mentioned patent to Bunker, the scraper necessitates removal prior to the removal of the tire.
An alternative attachment is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 979,699, issued Dec. 27, 1910 to Thomas H. Prince, disclosing a puncture guard for pneumatic tires which includes a pair of jaws, each attachable to the forks of a bicycle. The jaws cooperatively support a U-shaped segment of spring metal which spans the treads of the tire. The jaws and the hardware for attaching the same to the frame add unnecessary weight to the bicycle. Further, the U-shaped segment of spring metal is fixed a predetermined distance from the tire surface and therefore provides little assurance that relatively small particles of debris will be removed from the tire. It should be noted that the segment of U-shaped spring metal would more likely than not have to be varied with a variation in the width of the tire.
Yet another scraper is shown for scraping debris from a bicycle tire in U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,080, issued Sep. 18, 1979 to Michael E. Poe, describing a planar blade detachably secured to the frame of a bicycle. An edge of the blade is positioned adjacent the outer circumference of the bicycle tire. Similar to the scraper of Prince described above, this scraper does not communicate with the tire and hence, is not likely to remove relatively small particles of debris from the tire.
Unlike the above mentioned patents, U.S. Pat. No. 719,608, issued Feb. 3, 1903 to John M. Peterson, discloses an automatic bicycle brush-supporting device operable from an upper portion of the bicycle frame. The device includes a frame for supporting a the brush in and out of contact with the tire of a bicycle. This device is also big and bulky and suffers the disadvantages associated with these two characteristics. Moreover, this device employs a considerably number of moving parts, increasing the likelihood of mechanical breakdown identified with wear. Like the Peterson patent above, French Patent Application No. 2 581 953 A1, published Nov. 21, 1986, also shows a cable activated tire scraping brush assembly. This scraping assembly is shown affixed to a bicycle fender. The bicycle frame may not accommodate this scraping assembly and the obsolescence of fenders on competition bicycles may render this scraper useless.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.